The one with all the christmas decorations...

We finally managed to get our christmas decorations up yesterday. Ok actually let me rephrase that, I finally managed to get our christmas decorations up yesterday whilst Mark played about with computers and electrical bits!

Now that they are all up it's starting to feel a lot more like christmas at home. Well they are nearly all, there's a few bits left to do including some stockings I'm making myself (complete with jingle bells!) that need the tops putting on them but other than that it's pretty much done! We don't have much, we've only been leaving together for just over a year and this is our second christmas living together (6th as an actual couple though which is rather scarey!).

I'm a bit particular when it comes to my decorations. For starters I have to do the tree and you can't just chuck everything on it needs to be balanced. Oh and everything has to be red and gold. No exceptions, my colour scheme is red and gold which in my eyes just screams christmas and that's final... no other colours are allowed to sneak in no matter how cute the decoration is!

So now do you want to see some pictures? Of course you do!

This completely gorgeous chap was bought a little earlier on this year when christmas decorations first started appearing in the shops again. I couldn't resist him he's soooo cute! He's actually meant to be a tree topper I think but they had him sat on a stair rail like this in the shop and I thought he'd be just perfect for our stairs.

The majority of our decorations are in the living room and are all kinda grouped round the fireplace as I always find that fires remind me of christmas anyway.

This has got to be my favourite photo out of all those I took, I love these Baubles anyway, they are so lush and opulent and there's just something about this shot that I really like!

This beautiful wire angel is also meant to be a tree topper but I thought she was just perfect for my fireplace (along with the cool metal reindeer I bought last year - no photo of those but if you look carefully at the shot with the fireplace in it you can see them on the other side of the mantel piece).

And finally the bauble tree, I picked this up this year and it's to go in the dining room as something a little bit different. It does however break my rule of only red and gold as the tree itself is silver... but that's not the actual decoration is it? Afterall my big tree is green isn't it... Or am I just making excuses now and before I know it I'll have a multicoloured chirstmas!

Can you keep a secret?

I don't make my own cards. Is that a terrible thing to admit when I'm an avid scrapper and have a whole craft room full of paper craft supplies that could be used to make them. I think it bothers me at this time of year because so many people are busily making their own christmas cards to send out and I'm not. Actually that's not quite true, I've made one. Yes I've made one whole christmas card! I started off with such good intentions and bought a few sheets of christmas PP specially to make them and well it just didn't happen...

I don't know what it is with me and cards but we don't get on, I'm never inspired in terms of design. Fair enough I could just copy someone elses but that doesn't really excite me.

And why do I feel to share this with everyone? Well todays JYC prompt is all about correspondance and it got me thinking all about my lack of interest in card making. Is it something to be ashamed of? Well now I've announced it to the world I feel a little cleansed, afterall non crafters don't make their own christmas cards and just because I'm a scrapbooker doesn't mean I have to also be a cardmaker. JYC is all about taking back your christmas and I'm taking back mine and I'm not going to feel guilty about not making my own cards I'm quite simply going to be some charity ones and feel good about it!

For those of you still with me after my ramblings about christmas cards (and I doubt there is anyone) I'll reward with you with some lovely photos now... I don't have any pictures to share that go with this topic so I'll go for some completely random pictures of the most gorgeous Daniel Craig (who is my current hot totty and the reason why I'm quite happy to watch reruns of Casino Royale as many times as Mark wants but refuse to watch the older Bond movies!) that my friend sent to me in an email the other day in an effort to cheer me up (I was a little down about my lack of time to myself since starting full time work) and so here they are as my reward to you for listening to my rambling...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...everywhere I go! Seriously, not only is that true but I have had that song in my head all day and have been humming it to myself.

On a similar note, Journal Your Christmas starts today and when I got home from work I was excited to be able to read my first prompt which is all about doing a manifesto. I had intended to write my own but I actually really like the standard one from the class so will be using this instead.

Starting today, December first, I will keep a Christmas journal. In it, I will write something every day to reflect on the holidays of my past, enjoy the holidays of the present and dream about the holidays of the future. To some, this would be a stack of papers and trivial scribbles, but not to me. I am taking back my Christmas, I am letting it be something I relish and most importantly I am giving at least fifteen minutes to myself, every day, no matter how crazy this season becomes. This Christmas I will make something with my own hands, my own words and my own memories.

Some people are using this as their page for the 1st December but I'm going to use it as my introduction page and for the 1st I'm going to journal about how cold it's been today (and yesterday!). The car said is was -7°C from when I started it up all the way into work. I've actually never seen it show a temperature that low before! I'm not sure if it was accurate but it certainly felt that cold.

Ok so this pretty photo isn't actually from today (I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark at the moment boohoo), I took it yesterday in my back garden. There was so much frost it actually looked like snow when I first got up and it was the same when I got up this morning. They have been predicting a really cold winter and it looks like they might be right!